Hadred Dynasty
The Hadred Dynasty is a fictional dynasty from the Source Lands Setting, specifically a human dynasty, affiliated with Source Land Vampirism and with the Land Barons of the Allied Midsourceland Territories. History The Hadred Dynasty sprung from the Admeth Dynasty, who were the first Lords of Lynden, some time before the Imperial Era began. Early History Lynden is a major city in Northern Orlais, and the core of the settlement has some ancient Elven architecture. Nestled in the cliffs, before the low-beach that stretches all the way to Rivera, some distance west of Valier, and during the initial rise of Lynden, many sought to form alliances with the ruling family of Lynden, but interestingly enough, Hadred himself (a Nordmarian settler), the namesake of the Dynasty, was not one of them, he was a low-born soldier who rose in the ranks and was rewarded with land and married the ruler's second daughter, and established his Manorial Estate outside of Lynden. * It wasn't normally possible for non-citizens to become soldiers, but Lynden was part of a region of Orlais that saw constant influxes of Nordmarian Settlers, as part of an agreement to attempt to stop raids from the North, and to further this agenda, Nordmarians were allowed in the military with full rights. The Unknown History of House Hadred It was either the grandson or great-grandson of Hadred, named Dorvhal Hadred, who was the first of the family to contract vampirism. As was customary, all noble families had to give up all their male children for military service as Knights, and Dorvhal had made a career out of it. It is said that he was infected with vampirism when he fought a group of raiders from the North, and he contracted Nosferatu-Fever, which slowly killed him - but fortunately, he was brought to city of Lynden in time to prevent him rising as a Nosferatu, aided to become a Dhampyr by the Lord's concubine, a lowly Dhampyr living under the Pax Nosgoth, and Dorvhal became the first member of the Scarlet Banner. The Scarlet Banner The Legio Mortis was the Imperial term for military units composed of undead, and for their collective force of such - the term is often used to describe any such units, but the term had not been properly coined yet when Dorvhal founded the Scarlet Banner - a Century-sized unit, shared between multiple large Orlesian Cities, consisting of a single unit of Vampires of mixed types and a large number of thralls to serve as vanguard. The First Matriarch Eleria, Dorvhal's wife, was a Courtier in the large Orlesian city of Lyden, sent there by her father who was a powerful Lord in Southern Orlais. She was embraced by Dorvhal, shortly after he had been made commander of the Scarlet Banner, and she became the Matriarch of the Hadred Dynasty, in her husband's continued absence, due to his military obligations - which was probably a good idea, as she had extensive political experience, as opposed to her husband. First Troubles The Scarlet Banner was discontinued when Lynden became part of the Empire, in the relatively early Imperial Era, and it isn't known what became of Dorvhal after that, but he was likely executed, or agreed to serve in a remote area to protect his family. At this time, Eleria had come to be regarded as a respected member of Vampire society, and had finally earned the right to sire her own childer, from among her great-grandchildren, and she began the new family traditions to build a strong faction around her, of her own blood. Anarchy Eleria was the most powerful and venerable elder in Lynden by the time the Imperial Era came to end in Orlais, but with the collapse of Imperial Control, her political power came to an end and she was forced to go into hibernation to avoid gathering attention from the masses who sought to purge the city of Vampires - and from her brood, she was the only who stayed that survived. * During this time, when Eleria was hibernating, her family virtually abandoned their practices of the occult and made a fast return to the normal schemes of low nobility, which was when most of the major off-shoot branches were established. Return of the Matriarch There were some occultists in the family who continued their practices. After Eleria disappeared for some time, the family took up other occupations in secret - witchcraft and sorcery, hidden behind the privacy afforded by being Knights and Manor Lords, it was near the middle of the post-imperial era when a woman named Alexandra Hadred developed a ritual that sought to awaken Eleria momentarily - just long enough to pass on her dark gift, and then send her back to slumber, until such a time that the family deemed it fitting to awaken her. * The family had a difficult time hiding their nature, as being closely related to Vampires and being a family of Blood Thralls with near constant contamination of their bloodline, they had genetically changed, meaning the Hadreds had, to put it mildly, become a family of very late bloomers who kept extremely well. * Despite that the Hadred children often looked half a decade younger than they were, and that their young adults often looked like pre-teens and their venerable members looking like middle-aged, the family was revered for its martial prowess as Knights, and their shrewd ways of business. The New Ways After the return of Vampirism to the family, the family re-adopted some of Eleria's ways, operating much like a layered sect or cult. The family featured an inner circle, a secret group of unknown individuals from various branches of the family, that held exclusive power to sanction new major decisions for the family - but this was ultimately kept very secret. The minor decisions were made by the family council, a group consisting of the heads of each individual branch of the family that had been granted branch-status with the family - those that did not have branch status were still welcome at family gatherings and were expected to do favors for the family, in return for favor with the family. Business Moguls Their longevity, their talent and their tight-knit family as well as ability to retain and agenda across centuries, allowed the family to become an extremely successful merchant venture. Alexandra eventually made the trip to the Carnala Republics where she laid claim to the Admeth Ancestral Ruins, as well as the long abandoned Admeth family mausoleum, both of which she re-purposed for her own family - being able to prove lineage. From the new estate in the Republics, the family slowly began to shift over most of their assets, but before long, they had small Manors scattered across the Westerlands, and Alexandra lived in safety within the Carnala Republics, where all of her foul practices were fully legal - a safe haven for vampires as well as unsanctioned magic-users, and the family became extremely successful, influential and wealthy. Bitter Rivalry The family enjoyed several decades of wealth and prosperity, even if their drastic decision to become merchants more or less barred them from obtaining higher status of nobility or direct power. Unfortunately, this same success also garnered the attention of other Vampires, masquerading among the human population, and bitter rivalries saw an escalation of conflicts across the Westerlands, and one by one, the family saw its enclaves fall to savage vampires or humans who had become wise to the family's darker side. Forced to deny everything, the family managed to pass off the series of events as a vampiric infiltration of their family business, as by then, it was hard for anyone but themselves to technically keep track of their collective pedigree, so remarks about all the many witches and vampires slain being related fell on deaf ears. Drastic Measures After fending off multiple assassination plots, Alexandra feared that the family's real secret was exposed - the torpid corpse of Eleria, which threatened Alexandra's own existence, if was harmed. She enlisted a young vampire, who undertook the name "Julian Hadred", and sent him to Nova-Valier with the sarcophagus containing The First Matriarch, and with that action, Alexandra herself turned over control of the family to Lucius Hadred, who ruthlessly restored order among his family and saw the family lay claim to many new honors. A New World and New Rules Julian Hadred established himself in Nova-Valier, but he was not the only vampire who had sought to escape the Old World, and he found himself under attack almost immediately, and was forced to ruthlessly establish himself in the area, by becoming a public figure and thus being difficult to target - this was a serious gamble, and one that paid off, but wasn't without risk, and earned Julian considerable scorn from the rest of the Inner Circle, to the point where they threatened to send someone to relieve him of duty. As time progressed, and Nova-Valier entered into the very early Colonial-Era, Julian was naturally soon discovered to be a vampire by some few members of the upper crust of Nova-Valier, but instead of having him slain, many saw an opportunity, and proposed that Julian facilitated a limited return of the Legio Mortis, to aid in wars, and Julian agreed in return for lasting amnesty for himself, provided he did not create more vampires without permission from the city of Nova-Valier, and with the city on his side, Julian finally destroyed most of his vampiric competition. Return of the Scarlet banner Roland Hadred, a great-grandson of Julian's, was embraced specifically to become the first member of the new implementation of the Legio Mortis, on a purely experimental basis. In honor of his family heritage, Julian ordered the unit named "The Scarlet Banner", and Roland would lead a few captured vampires that seemed willing to serve. Roland fought in the war for Segovia, that saw the creation of Midsourceland Territories (later known as the Allied Midsourceland Territories), where he, after the war, managed to become a Land Baron, against the wishes of his Grandfather, and in total spite of the desires of the politicians in Nova-Valier, who had intended for him to return for debriefing - however, Roland believed that as an Officer of the Orlesian Military, part of a secret experiment or not, he had equal right to the spoils of war, and would not be passed over. * Roland had become highly decorated during the war, and was a member of the Order of the Crimson Dawn, an Orlesian Knightly Order that persisted beyond the general decline of Knights and Nobility, and was regarded as "Old Gentry" - the highest honorific social status one could hold in the Colonies. His identity as a Vampire remained a secret, to avoid embarrassment. Family Feud For a few decades, there was a significant on-going family feud, and while it never truly ceased, tensions came to an end eventually, and some measure of stability returned to House Hadred.